AMNESTY: CHINA EXECUTED OVER 1,700

BEIJING -- China executed more people in the last three months than
the rest of the world did in the past three years -- 1,781 people put
to death in a government campaign against crime, Amnesty
International said Friday. The London-based rights group said China
has put people to death not just for violent crimes, but also for
bribery, embezzlement, fraud, pimping, stealing gasoline, selling
harmful foods and drug offenses.

"The campaign is nothing short of an execution frenzy, a huge waste
of human life," Amnesty said.

Amnesty said its figures of at least 1,781 executions and 2,960 death
sentences since Strike Hard was launched in April were tallied from
publicly available reports.

In contrast, Amnesty counted 1,751 executions in the rest of the
world over the past three years. But only a fraction of death
sentences and executions in China are publicly reported and the
actual number of people put to death is far higher, the group said.

Amnesty, which opposes use of the death penalty, released its report
one week before the International Olympic Committee votes on whether
Beijing will host the 2008 Summer Olympics, or one of four other
cities, including Paris and Toronto.

Critics say Chinese human rights abuses make Beijing unfit to host
the games. Beijing officials say an Olympics would promote human
rights in China. But they also argue that political considerations
should not be used to judge Beijing's Olympic bid.

Amnesty expressed fears that in their rush to produce results for the
anti-crime drive, called "Strike Hard," authorities risk executing
innocent people. Police and prosecutors have been urged to cut
corners to secure quick arrests and trials, it said.

In southern Hunan province, police reported solving 3,000 cases in
two days in April, Amnesty said. In southwestern Sichuan province,
police said they apprehended 19,446 people in six days, it said.

"The potential for miscarriages of justice, arbitrary sentencing and
the execution of innocent people is immense," the group said.

Most executions take place after sentencing rallies in front of
massive crowds in sports stadiums and public squares, it said.

Orginally targeted at organized and violent crime, Chinese
authorities have greatly expanded the scope of the Strike Hard
campaign, Amnesty said.

In Xinjiang, a restive western region of China where militant Muslims
are fighting Chinese rule, authorities have executed people accused
of separatism, the group said.

Authorities in the prosperous southern province of Guangdong, next to
Hong Kong, and other regions have executed people for fraud, forging
currency and "disrupting the stock market" in an effort to curb
economic crimes before China joins the World Trade Organization,
Amnesty said.

China expects to join the rule-making body for world trade by early
next year at the latest.